Blank screen using fglrx and an HDMI audio question

[schrute]

Hi!
I have now for two days been battling against my computer. The problem I'm having is that I'm not able to use fglrx as it only gives me a black screen at the time when login screen should appear. I have tried installing from packages, and also building my own packages from the downloaded .run file from amd's website. I have tried reinstalling, reconfiguring, removing xserver-xorg-video-ati and so on, but the problem is basically the same even though sometimes it made the screen turn off instead of just black as it's now and have been for the most setups. I've tried running without xorg.conf and tried making one using aticonfig -initial , either ways the result is the same, blank and black screen.

I can confirm with dmesg | grep fglrx that the module is loaded (even now though I'm actually using radeon driver). The X log in /var/log is just an empty file, so no help there. Actually I started of with this yesterday but with a Debian/lenny installation, and had the same problem (the turning off screen variant). In Debian I couldn't even start X using any other driver (even though I maybe could now after I learned a bit more of how package tools work) so I installed Ubuntu instead. In Ubuntu everything loads but is using the radeon driver as default... Ubuntu though suggested on launch to upgrade to the propriety fglrx driver on launch, but that only made my screen to turn of on next launch...

The reason I really need/want to use fglrx is that I have my receiver connected through the HDMI cable and using it for sound. This works in Windows. As I understand I need to use the fglrx driver to do this in Linux, or do I ? Actually the HDMI out is shown in the mixer settings, but I don't get any sound through it... Guessing that I need to access some CCC settings that I cannot start when using radeon driver. Or should it be enough to get HDMI-out sound just having the fglrx loaded though not using it for graphics ?

How should I proceed with this situation? Trying to get fglrx to work or trying to get audio to work using radeon driver? And what can I try more? I have actually used both Linux and FreeBSD a bit in the good old days of the late-nineties (remember Slackware 96 ) but don't think I ever had this hard solved problem...

My system is:
Ubuntu 10.(4? latest netinstall) x64
C2D E6600 on P5B-deluxe
4GB RAM
ATI HD4350 (1 hdmi, 1 dvi, 1 vga), monitor connected on DVI

[schrute]

I have now tried removing and reinstalling again through jockey. Unfortunetly the screen just turns off at about the time login should appear. Also I still dont get any log generated, is there any way to force it? Maybe start in failsafe-mode and start X with some special argument?

Anyways here is the info I get with dmesg, so fglrx module seems to get loaded:
[ 6.030803] fglrx: module license 'Proprietary. (C) 2002 - ATI Technologies, Starnberg, GERMANY' taints kernel.
[ 6.070895] [fglrx] Maximum main memory to use for locked dma buffers: 3802 MBytes.
[ 6.071023] [fglrx] vendor: 1002 device: 954f count: 1
[ 6.071559] [fglrx] ioport: bar 4, base 0xc000, size: 0x100
[ 6.071750] [fglrx] Kernel PAT support is enabled
[ 6.071766] [fglrx] module loaded - fglrx 8.72.11 [Apr 8 2010] with 1 minors

I'm using the autogenerated xorg.conf , should I change it and more data? :
Section "Screen"
Identifier "Default Screen"
DefaultDepth 24
EndSection

Section "Module"
Load "glx"
EndSection

Section "Device"
Identifier "Default Device"
Driver "fglrx"
EndSection

[schrute]

I have now tried all the tricks in the wiki.cchtml.com/index.php/Ubuntu_Lucid_Installation_Guide and still only getting blank screen :/

I'm suspecting that it maybe so that the output is going to either HDMI or VGA output of the graphics card. Could it be so? Unfortunately I dont have any other monitors/tv to try the other outputs... Can I explictly specify using aticonfig to use DVI output ?

[Segfault]

Gentoo Linux Documentation -- Gentoo Linux ATI FAQ

0. It seems you can use kernel agpart or ATI agpart, have you tried both?
1. There is a warning about framebuffer, have you disabled kernel framebuffer(s)?

[schrute]

gentoo.org/doc/en/ati-faq.xmlGentoo Linux Documentation -- Gentoo Linux ATI FAQ[/url]

0. It seems you can use kernel agpart or ATI agpart, have you tried both?
1. There is a warning about framebuffer, have you disabled kernel framebuffer(s)?

Thanks for your response!

0. Running dmesg | grep agpgart I get:
[ 1.584956] Linux agpgart interface v0.103
Which I guess means I'm using the kernel version. I've googled a bit and cannot really find how to set up to use the ATI agpgart... Any idea on how to do that?

1. I tried to add vga=normal modeset as kernel arguments when launching from grub, which I understands disables framebuffer, but the result is still blank screen.

[Segfault]

Well, I admit I really don't know whats wrong with your box.

0. Not sure if switching to ATI agpart will help, it is a matter of rebuilding kernel and disabling agpart.
1. Maybe vga=normal disables framebuffer, never tried it, I'd just rebuild the kernel and disable framebuffer.

Is your card claimed as supported on ATI web page?

[schrute]

Ok, so I found some information about agpgart.
I've tried blacklisting intel_agp module , although the other part seems to be compiled in the kernel as I cannot find any other module.

I've also read that radeonhd is also capable of HDMI sound, but I haven't had any luck using it either. I get blank screen with it to.. although it at least produces logs wich end with segmentation fault :/

I've read that the newest kernels have support for ATI HDMI audio, thinking of buildning my own kernel. How big of a hassle is it nowadays? Like 10-12 years ago I always used my own kernels, although people seem to be warning for it nowadays... I guess there are a loooot more options now to be thinking of.

[schrute]

Yes, the card is supported. It's from the generation before this, so it should be neither to old or to new for good support.

And yeah, I forgot to mention that I read about an option in xorg.conf for enabling internal agpgart that I also tried at the same time as blacklisting intel_agp

[Segfault]

www.kernel-seeds.org, the home of Linux Kernel Seeds

It might help. Not a big hassle if you ask me. But I run Gentoo which has no stock kernel.

[schrute]

Ok, will give it a try maybe. And if it that doesn't work I'll just probably have to forget about HDMI audio for now and do some real work... and maybe come back to it when I fell sadomachistic some time again =)
Thanks for your help!